CAMPION. 53 



contains two or three familiar species. The Ragged Robin 

 (Lychnis flos-cuculi), with its bright rose-coloured torn petals, 

 has always been a favourite with me. The poet Twamly was 

 evidently very fond of the flower, and resents its being 

 called " Ragged." 



" A man of taste is Robinet, 



A dandy sprnce and trim ; 

 Whoe'er wonld dainty fashions set 

 Should go and look at him. 



" Eob scorns to wear his crimson coat 



As common people do ; 

 He folds and fits it in and out, 

 And does it bravely too. 



" Oh ! Robin loves to prank him rare 

 With fringe, and flowers, and all ; 

 Till you'd take him for a lady fair 

 Just goins to a ball. 



" Robin's a rogneish merry lad, 



He dances in the breeze, 

 And looks up with a greeting glad 

 To the rustling hedgerow trees." 



There is enough of viscid juice about its joints to qualify it 

 for a place among the aristocratic Flycatchers. Edward 

 gathered some of these specimens near Hawkhurst, in Kent, 

 and I have brought some of them from moist Yorkshire 

 meadows. Hooker says that the name Lychnis is derived 

 from the Greek word for lamp, because a cottony substance 

 upon the leaves of an allied plant used to be made into lamp- 

 wicks. Flos-cuculi means Flower of the Cuckoo ; I suppose 

 the season of the Cuckoo and of the flower being the same 

 accounts for the application in this instance. 



The Red Campion (Lychnis dioica, Plate IV., fig. 6), is a 

 frequent ornament of hedgerows ; its bright petals are notched 

 in the centre, the whole plant is hairy ; its principal peculiarity 

 is that it bears its stamens upon one plant and its stigma upon 

 another. The reddish-rose colour of its blossoms makes it a 

 very lovely ornament of the green hedge, affording one of the 

 most pleasing contrasts imaginable. Leigh Hunt in his " Song 



